Dusk Beyond the End of the World is a classic example of anime whose premise will pull you in but whose execution may leave you regretting that initial interest. I can’t recall exactly where I saw an explanation of its premise first, but it was one that instantly caught my attention, for reasons that will probably be obvious once you hear what the show is about. Dusk Beyond the End of the World takes place in a near future where use of artificial intelligence is even more widespread than it is now and a brilliant inventor, Towasa, is poised to create the first androids that cross the boundary from artificial intelligence to artificial personality / personhood. Reactions to this aren’t exactly all positive. Some in the scientific community welcome this sort of advancement and seek to work alongside the inventor and her project, while many in the public reject it on face as replacing humanity and/or playing God. After a tragic incident attempting to protect Towasa, main character Akira, who was dating Towasa (and is her adoptive brother…more on that later), enters cold sleep and wakes up 200 years later in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. An android named Yugure, who has the same face as Towasa, appears before him…and immediately proposes marriage to him.
The first half and the second half of that synopsis aren’t quite like one another, are they? This, I think, is emblematic of the core of my frustration with Dusk Beyond the End of the World. It creates a world that I am deeply interested in and then fills it with characters and romantic themes that I am not remotely interested in. This isn’t to say that I reject romance anime, or even the possibility of it appearing in a science fiction, fantasy, or otherwise fictional setting. I think there are plenty of anime that combine an interesting world with a lot of lore with romantic plots and subplots. There aren’t too many like that in the post-apocalyptic genre of anime, so at the very least I can applaud the show for trying something that I genuinely don’t see very often. And I like romance anime in general, so the genre-blending is certainly not a deal-breaker for me.
The problem I have is with the series’ execution. Many aspects of the plot feel unnecessary to the point of being gratuitous. At points I felt certain I was watching filler episodes added to an otherwise concise original source, but the anime is based on an original story by Naokatsu Tsuda, who is most known for ample work on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. And all the while, as the story spends time in places that don’t feel necessary or fulfilling, so much potential sits untouched and seemingly ignored.
This article contains minor plot spoilers for Dusk Beyond the End of the World Episode 0: Think Morning, Count Two and Episode 1: The Woman Who Sailed the Soul.
A Timely Premise
To be honest, I’m actually surprised there aren’t more anime about AI right now. Obviously, artificial intelligence is a very hot button topic, especially in the anime world, and its various effects are top of mind for a lot of people. Effects on creative output, effects on the environment, effects on labor, and the ethical considerations of treating something potentially sentient as different from humans are all very interesting, especially when they can be explored in the vacuum of media. I’d much rather watch the world dissolve into war over AI in a television show than experience a real life Matrix event. When I started Dusk Beyond the End of the World, I wasn’t fully aware of the flash-forward element of the plot. This made me think I was about to watch an anime that explored humanity’s reaction to rapidly developing technology, which I think would be a deeply entertaining show in itself.
But, even as I found myself somewhat disappointed that the story doesn’t stay put in the immediate future (the beginning of the story takes place briefly in 2029 and later 2038), I was able to appreciate many elements of the flash forward on its face. I think the initial setup of a character living in a world and then waking up in a post-apocalyptic version of the same world is incredibly interesting and compelling. It simultaneously has some of the “how did I get here / how did this happen” elements of isekai while giving us a frame of reference to compare the new setting to. What I expected from Dusk Beyond the End of the World was for the bulk of the show to slowly tease out the lore of the world, showing the audience more about how humanity reacted to AI over time and how it interacted with humanity. We’re shown immediately in the future world that a mysterious organization called OWEL leads the world and restricts technological development to some extent. I thought I would get a lot of that and flashbacks showing its origins and rationales.
An…Interesting Introduction
What do I get instead? Quasi incest. Even before we make it to the flash forward, we’re presented with two main characters in Towasa and Akira who are adopted siblings but also in love with one another. While I cannot with 100% certainty say that this particular detail will never become important in some way that demonstrates a payoff, I can say that it was a distracting element of the early minutes of the show. It was distracting in the same way I find some fan service distracting (and the show has some of that too). Enough for me to take notice and be annoyed, but not enough for me to stop watching and certainly something I’ve gotten used to after a lifetime of watching anime.
Their love story serves as the foundation and guiding light for Akira once he wakes up a few hundred years in the future. He’s searching for Towasa in hopes that she’s managed to survive into the future somehow and immediately learns that she is connected to the strange android in front of him by virtue of that android having her exact same face. The fact that he is then proposed to by someone who looks like but is not his sister-girlfriend is interesting (and deeply ironic for reasons revealed later in the series) but not to the point of being compelling. Akira in general has some traits that you’d see in a typical Shonen protagonist (headstrong, jumping into fights to save people even when he seemingly isn’t strong enough to, an unwillingness to abandon his principles) that don’t feel particularly earned for his character. What I mean by that is that I don’t think some of his actions were preceded by the kinds of character development that I believe would make them feel organic. I can buy him jumping in front of a bullet to save someone he’s in love with, but not that he’d behave similarly with random girl introduced 10 frames ago.
A Story That Just Isn’t Gripping Me
As of this article’s publication, there are nine episodes of Dusk Beyond the End of the World released (special shoutout to delty who spoiled Episode 9 on Twitter within hours of it airing btw). The majority of the time in these episodes explores romantic dynamics between the main trio of characters and a variety of other romantic partnerships they encounter during their journey to find more about what happened to destroy the world and create the society present in the 2200’s. Interestingly, in this future marriage has been replaced with an institution known an “ehlsea” which can occur between a number of people. It’s essentially the same as polyfidelity, which is similar to polyamory or other non-monogamous arrangements in that multiple people are involved but different in that the relationship is closed and everyone is dating everyone in the group. This future is also much more progressive in terms of sexuality in these relationships, and it’s quite common in universe for there to be same-gender relationships between two or more people. Some people are monogamous, but this is rare.
Is this interesting? Sure, on some level. But it feels like an oddly deliberate choice to dedicate so much time not only to the main cast’s romance but also to the romantic antics of guest characters who only appear for an episode. The time used for that is time that could have been more evenly balanced with developing the world and contributing lore to it. Even within the context of the world itself, it is strange how many times Akira especially seems okay with bumping into some random characters and starting what can only be described as a bad side quest. And I mean “bumping into” in the most minimalistic way you can imagine; some of these character introductions are literally just “these people happen to be having a lover’s quarrel right next to us.”
Episode after episode, I’m finding myself mentally begging the show to explore its world more. The core mystery of the series is how the world of the future came to be and what happened to Towasa. Even setting aside any desire to have one of those mystery’s solved leaves a lot to be desired due to how many detours are taken along the way to gaining information in the show. And perhaps you’re thinking that the romance is high quality content and makes up for the lack of core expository work. If you’re thinking that, you would be incorrect. The relationship between Akira and the android Yugure wasn’t very interesting to me until they had more time to develop as characters in Episode 6. The third member of their group has rather low effort romantic development in my opinion and at times comes off as a perpetual damsel character. Some of the side characters have, in my opinion, actually more entertaining romances to watch than that of the main cast, but that’s only true of those introduced in one, maybe two episodes, both of which are recent ones. The others are either somewhat flat or also incestuous.
Missed Potential in Dusk Beyond the End of the World
Ultimately, this anime, for me, falls into a category of shows I will finish but likely remain disappointed with. It’s premise is so timely and some of its setup is genuinely cool, and I think in another universe it turned out to be a brilliant addition to the world of post-apocalyptic science fiction anime. Unfortunately, the over-indexing on romance subplots, lack of essential character development, and under-exploration of what could have been a very detailed world leave me desiring a lot more from it. By Episode 9 (the tenth episode, since there is an Episode 0), there have been just enough reveals that I want to see things through, but I’m not clamoring to do so.
Take away the quasi incest, trim down the romance side quests, and dedicate more time to world building and this show rises significantly in ratings for me. But, as things are, it’s really not a show I can readily recommend. Dusk Beyond the End of the World is available to stream on HIDIVE.
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